There are many words you could use to describe Joe Biden’s life. “Lucky” isn’t one of them.

In 1972, shortly after winning his first U.S. Senate race, Biden’s wife and 1-year-old daughter were killed in a Delaware car accident that also critically injured his two surviving sons. Had it not been for the intervention of then-Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield, who talked Biden out of resigning the seat, the future vice president’s political career may have ended then and there.

In 1988, Biden’s first presidential bid was cut short by allegations that he had exaggerated aspects of his life story and plagiarized the words of a British politician. Shortly after dropping out of the race, he suffered a brain aneurysm so severe that a priest was called in to administer last rites.

And the Biden penchant for tragedy resurfaced again in May, when the vice president’s son, former Delaware attorney general Beau Biden, succumbed to brain cancer at age 46.

Despite all that hardship, there is a permanent sunniness about the man that wins over even those who don’t share his politics. In a recent interview with the Huffington Post, Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina said of Biden, “He’s the nicest person I think I’ve ever met in politics. He is as good a man as God has ever created.”

With that in mind, it’s nice to see Joe Biden getting a break for once. Implausible as it may have seemed just a few months ago, the 72-year-old vice president now holds it within his power to completely upend the Democratic presidential race.

Hillary Clinton is widely acknowledged to be the only plausible nominee in the field, but that’s not exactly comforting for liberal stalwarts. The more time passes, the clearer it becomes that Mrs. Clinton is ethically compromised, bereft of charisma (or even a modicum of likability) and lacking any rationale for her candidacy besides inevitability.

And where are Democratic voters to turn if the former secretary of state can’t deliver the goods? Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley is a nonentity, his sole selling point being that he’s the only candidate in the Democratic field born after 1953. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders may warm the cockles of progressive hearts, but to the wider electorate he comes off like a man shouting at oncoming traffic from the sidewalk. Former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee and former Virginia senator Jim Webb aren’t even lifelong Democrats. Chafee was a Republican until he lost his U.S. Senate seat in 2006. Webb served as secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration.

In other words, Democratic primary votes have one bad candidate and four nonstarters – a dynamic that might get Joe Biden thinking about whether he ought to delay his retirement plans.

Media reports suggest that the vice president will make a final decision about entering the presidential race next month. Many astute political observers still think the smart money is on Biden staying out of the race. If so, he ought to reconsider.

Put yourself in Joe Biden’s shoes for a minute. You’re 72 years old, meaning that, barring a successful White House bid, your political career is over – and, as such, you have nothing to lose from ending up on the wrong side of the Clinton machine.

You’re a guy who loves the give-and-take of retail politics at a time when the Democratic frontrunner is conducting herself like the Queen of Hearts.

You’ve got a plausible appeal to blue-collar voters, while Hillary Clinton seems more like Leona Helmsley every day.

And yes, your foreign-policy instincts may be less than stellar, but at least you never telegraphed to the public that the murder of an American ambassador abroad was tragic only insofar as it was an inconvenience for you.

Like a lot of people come this election season, Joe Biden may be looking in the mirror and thinking “Why not me?” Unlike a lot of those people, he’d be right.

WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Letters to the Editor: E-mail to letters@ocregister.com.
Please provide your name, city and telephone number (telephone numbers will not be published).
Letters of about 200 words or videos of 30-seconds
each will be given preference. Letters will be edited for length, grammar and clarity.

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.